Never Deal With Expired Spices Again by Using These Mini Packs Instead

Adding seasoning to a dish should be a simple part of the cooking process, but too often, rummaging for measuring spoons and checking the expiration dates on spice jars (which you're hopefully doing!) just leads to frustration. Occo offers a better way by replacing oversized bottles with smartly designed, card-sized packages.

The new product, which is currently raising money on Kickstarter, stores spices in packs of 12 individual ¼-teaspoon chambers, adding up to 1 tablespoon of the ingredient per card. Instead of dirtying extra utensils, home cooks can measure out seasonings by peeling open however many capsules the recipe calls for and adding the spice directly to the dish.

An Occo spice card contains much less of an ingredient than the spice jars sold at supermarkets, and that's by design. Even though some people use the same spice containers for years, dried herbs and spices do eventually go bad after prolonged exposure to light, heat, oxygen, and moisture. After enough time passes, the product can lose flavor, and in worst cases, cause food-borne illnesses.

If you want to get the most out of your spices, you should replace them every three to six months. Of course, this is easier said than done if you only use the large jar of nutmeg in your pantry 1 teaspoon at a time every few weeks or so. The spice cards from Occo are designed to be used up before whatever's inside them goes bad. (In case you're concerned with the extra waste produced by replacing one big jar with several tiny packages, each Occo card is made from aluminum, which is one of the easiest materials to recycle.)

Occo sells 12 basic herbs and spices, including oregano, paprika, cinnamon, and chili powder. You can pre-order a collection of three packs for a pledge of $15 on Kickstarter, with shipping estimated for June of this year.